| Wild-caught steelhead trout. |
Once in awhile, I am disappointed in a product I buy from Costco in Hackensack, and that's the case with smoked steelhead trout sold under the Ruby Bay label.
In this case, though, it's the Acme Smoked Fish Corp. that is to blame -- for leaving out important information on the origin of the fish and distracting me and other shoppers with meaningless claims.
At Costco on March 1, I bought a 12-ounce package for $9.49 -- or about 80 cents an ounce. That compares to 96 cents an ounce for Kirkland Signature smoked wild Alaskan sockeye salmon, which contains no preservatives.
 Image via Wikipedia |
| Wild sockeye salmon. |
Unfortunately, the Ruby Bay package doesn't tell you this is farmed fish, as I learned by calling Acme Smoked Fish. However, I didn't ask where the fish was farmed.
On Friday, I looked into Costco's fresh-fish case, and saw farmed steelhead trout. The label said it was from Chile and that it was colored artificially by chemicals in the feed.
So, is Acme's steelhead also colored artificially? The label says it's "All Natural" and contains "No Preservatives."
Anyway, although the steelhead tastes good, it pales when compared with the smoked wild sockeye salmon. I have a few ounces of the former left, but once it's gone, I'll never buy it or any other Acme Smoked Fish Corp. product.
Acme Fish (any Warner Bros. cartoon fan worth their salt must LOVE that name) is one of the biggest players in the commercial fish game - not surprised their product contained crap.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads up!
You're welcome.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, most of the smoked fish sold at Costco is farmed, and most of the salmon is artificially colored, too.
If you must have lox, go with the smoked wild sockeye.
I don't suppose you know how sockeye salmon got its name. Well, I'll tell you how. One day Alfonse Palin, who just happens to have ben Sarah Palin's grandfather, was out fishing in an Alaska river when an 8-foot tall, 600 pound grizzly bear entered the river a few hundred feet away. Said bear took a swipe at a salmon that had just jumped out of the water and sent the salmon flying. And guess where it landed, hitting ol' Alfonse right in the face. As that was the only salmon he caught that day, he didn't tell anyone how he managed to catch it, but he told his family they were having sockeye salmon for dinner that night, and the name stuck. Bet you didn't know that.
ReplyDeletethat's just not true....
DeleteAs quoted from Wikipedia:
"The name "sockeye" is an anglicization of suk-kegh (sθə́qəy̓), its name in Halkomelem, the language of the indigenous people along the lower reaches of the Fraser River (one of British Columbia's many native Coast Salish languages). Suk-kegh means red fish"
Aaron, you're a font of little-known information. Glad you're a reader.
ReplyDeletewhat about Costco's frozen farmed steelhead trout from Chile - same bad news? The samples were great but, before I buy any, I wonder if it was raised with chemicals, etc.??
ReplyDeletewhat about Costco's frozen farmed steelhead trout from Chile - same bad news? The samples were great but, before I buy any, I wonder if it was raised with chemicals, etc.??
ReplyDeleteI have heard some disquieting things about farm-raised fish from Chile, so I would avoid the steelhead trout you mention.
ReplyDeleteI see lots of farmed fresh steelhead and salmon at Costco, and believe they come from Chile, too. The salmon label says it is colored artificially by chemicals in the feed.
Another issue with farmed fish is what they are fed. Some are fed food pellets made from other fish, and fish farmers are always trying to cut the ratio of let's say three pounds of feed to one pound of fish raised.
Whole Foods Market is the only retailer that certifies its farmed fish is being raised without antibiotics or an adverse impact on the environment.
I should add that Costco sells lots of frozen wild-caught fish -- sockeye salmon from Alaska, mahi-mahi and so forth -- all of which are better choices than frozen farmed fish.
ReplyDeleteSometime in June, fresh sockeye salmon fillets will start showing up in the fish case. Now, you can find, wild-caught fresh haddock, Pacific cod and flounder -- all of them terrific.
As of December 1, 2011, Costco has stopped selling its Wild Alaskan Smoked Sockeye Salmon. The company told me today that it wasn't selling enough to justify the cooler space that it occupied.
ReplyDeleteI am now searching for a reasonably priced alternative.
Thanks, Russ.
ReplyDeleteIt was missing for about a week at my Costco in Hackensack, N.J., but I found some on my last visit, which was on Dec. 7.
Good luck finding a reasonably priced alternative. Most other smoked wild salmon is wildly priced.
I don't know where you live. In North Jersey, Fairway Market and Whole Foods Market, both in Paramus, stock smoked wild salmon. I'm sure all other Whole Foods do as well.
My husband said the steelhead trout from Costco is fed the same stuff flamingos eat naturally to get their pink color. I had no idea that Flamingos are actually white and turn pink from their diet. anyway please correct if misinformed as we buy the sh trout monthly and eat it steamed for breakfast often.
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing on the label to that effect.
ReplyDeleteI don't think flamingos get their color from what they eat.
Astaxanthin, an oxycarotenoid, is what gives salmon and flamingos their color. It is present in copepods that are natural food in wild environments. Many salmonid farmers use feed that contains Hoffman La Roch's synthetic astaxanthin, which is a "color additive" regulated by FDA (CFR Title 21 Part 73). Astaxanthin contains several chiral isomers. The astaxanthin present in wild salmonids has a certain ratio of these isomers, and is "optically active". Synthetic astaxanthin has distinctively different ratios and is optically inactive. These compositional differences and resulting properties are the basis for methods to analytically determine the presence of synthetic astaxanthin.
ReplyDeleteSo, basically, you're saying it's an artificial coloring agent.
ReplyDeleteI've always heard salmon get their color from the shrimp and krill they eat while maturing in oceans.
I'd still rather eat wild-caught salmon than the farmed variety. The New York Times reported seven or eight years ago that salmon farmers are shown a color palette so they can custom order feed that would give their fish the desired hue.
When you see wild and farmed salmon side by side, as at Costco Wholesale, the wild fish have a deeper color that is evident from 10 feet away.
Although raised a city girl, I now live in Alaska and am lucky enough to catch our own wild salmon which is deep orange in color. We clean it, cut it and freeze it. We mulch all the heads and scraps into our organic garden.
ReplyDeleteBoy, I really envy you.
ReplyDeleteIn North Jersey, I enjoy fresh wild salmon for only about five months, then have to buy the frozen stuff.
In late May or early June, we get salmon from the Copper River in Alaska. Are those the females, before or after they lay their eggs?
Smoked Salmon and lox are not the same thing.
ReplyDeletePlease tell us the difference. I believe it has something to do with salt content.
ReplyDeleteLox is my shorthand reference to smoked wild salmon, the only kind I eat, as in "wild lox."
The most commonly used color enhancer used in Chilean aquaculture is canthaxanthin. Canthaxanthin itself is a natural carotenoid found in many different plants. It is the natural coloring of apples and many other fruits, vegetables, and flowers. Canthaxanthin functions as an ultra violet photon absorber, a singlet and triplet oxygen quencher and free radical deactivator.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could afford wild caught Pacific Salmon more often but since I am retired on a fixed, and somewhat restrictive, income I must eat what I can afford which is Chilean Steelhead Trout from Sam's Club. I've been eating it for years and I'm still kicking.
Thanks for your comment.
ReplyDeleteI don't think artificial color can kill you, but I prefer all-natural fish eating its normal diet.